Readme for Mindrx.lha Amiga AI public-domain work-in-progress.
The REXX programs in this archive are an attempt to implement in software
the linguistic theory of mind found as text and a "Mind.anim" on the Amiga
Library Disk (Fred Fish) No. 411. For the first time, this archive now
contains a schematic or flow-chart of Mind.rexx with the label,
"Mindmap4JUL94." The flow-chart can be printed out and will serve
both to explain the workings of Mind.rexx and as a plan for the porting
of Mind.rexx to languages other than its native Amiga ARexx.
These work-in-progress postings are being made by Arthur T. Murray of
Project Mentifex in Seattle, Washington. I am the author of Mind.rexx
and I hereby release the version in this posting into the public domain.
The version "Mind4JUL94A" permits the creation of various diagnostic
and archival records, such as hardcopy "labnote" print-outs of Mind.rexx
sessions, and RAM files containing the detailed state of the conceptual
memory and of the auditory memory at the end of a Mind.rexx session.
Persons who obtain and examine Mind.rexx are invited to choose the
hardcopy option and to mail the resulting "Field Report" to
Project Mentifex, Post Office Box 31326, Seattle, WA 98103-1326
before the end of September 1994.
"Mind29APR94A" demonstrated the "quickening" of the Mind.rexx program.
We have pulled out all the stops (the requests that the user press the
<RETURN> key) and we have programmed Mind.rexx to check briefly for
user input - in the absence of which, Mind.rexx goes into its "THINKING"
mode and formulates a simple sentence. However, we have only barely
begun to implement the internal associative processes of the rexxmind,
as is evident from the poor linguistic performance that results.
"Mind4JUL94A", the version in this archive, displays and prints out
verbose diagnostic messages which were necessary to re-establish
functionality after we overhauled the Mind.rexx program in May of 1994,
and after we coded in our interpretation of the notion of "re-entry"
as put forward in the theory of mind of Gerald Edelman.
This version is nevertheless being released immediately because it
goes far beyond any previously released version. The currently verbose
diagnostic messages will gradually be removed from upcoming versions,
but they are still in this current 29JUN1994 version, and they may indeed
be of special value to an Amiga AI enthusiast who wants to study the
function of Mind.rexx in extreme detail.
The "AudInPut" program is the rudimentary implementation of our
present plan to isolate the Mind.rexx from direct human input and to let
the rexxmind think on its own, after spawning a separate REXX program
which the human operator may use as an independent channel of communication
with the main Mind.rexx AI. The need for such isolation arose from the
programming consideration that the rexxmind should not have to wait idly
for human input, but should be allowed to think independently while
checking constantly for human input. We have opted to use the Amiga ARexx
"Clip List" as the message-passing mechanism, rather than an external file,
so as to keep the mental structures tightly within ARexx and not loosely
out in the vicissitudes of the operating system. As an afterthought, it
occurs that multiple co-existing rexxminds may pass messages through the
Clip List, or one single rexxmind may poll Clip List message-names for
not only auditory input, but also visual and other sensory input.
Mind.rexx simulates massive parallelism by letting all internal flows
of information advance by only one single step during a single moment "t"
of time. The program relies on its speed of computation in its attempt
to keep up with real-time input. During a frozen moment "t" of time,
Mind.rexx will generate an entire sentence of thought in natural language
and then deposit the sentence as engrams in the auditory memory channel
over an appropriate span of moments commensurate with the length of the
sentence.
Although with use of the Clip List and of other uniquely Amiga
REXX features we are risking a non-portability of Mind.rexx, our primary
concern is first to create the artificial mind on the Amiga, verify that
it works (thinks), and then re-code Mind.rexx for portability.
Even while still on the Amiga platform, the construction of Mind.rexx
as a group of intercommunicating mental "modules" makes possible our
invitation for any interested ARexx programmer to work on the implementation
of specific modules such as: visual input and the visual memory channel;
speech-recognition for a truly phonemic auditory channel; the motor memory
channel leading to robotics; emotion; volition; pain/pleasure; and so forth.
No permission from Project Mentifex is necessary, and no objection from any
authority is tolerable: The making of minds already occurs every day when
parents have children.
The modules of mind are apparent in the Main Body "Mindgrid" loop which
calls the modules one by one as Mind.rexx functions. REXX programmers are
invited to substitute their own programming code to improve a module.
Now that Mind.rexx has achieved both "quickening" and "re-entry",
future versions of Mind.rexx will sereve the purpose of various
psychological experiments on such things as the nature of concepts;
mindsets in non-English natural languages; multiple mindrexxes interacting
in a three-way arrangement with a human participant; Mind.rexx participation
on an electronic bulletin board; and so forth. Suggestions are welcome.
Further public-domain implementation of Mind.rexx will be sought for
the following non-Amiga versions of REXX:
uni-REXX VX-REXX
The Workstation Group WATCOM International
6300 N. River Road 415 Phillip Street
Rosemont, IL 60018 Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2L 3X2
VisPro/REXX (tm) REXX/Windows
HockWare, Inc. Kilowatt Software
P.O. Box 336 1945 Washington St., #410
Cary, NC 27512-0336 San Francisco, CA 94109
Personal REXX
Quercus Systems
P.O. Box 2157
Saratoga, CA 95070
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